Age Change In Letter 2 When Heloise

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From what started out as a teacher-student relationship, quickly escalated to a relationship full of lust and a false sense of passion. Their relationship quickly deteriorates for a number reasons like physical separation, the age difference, and this also helped them remember the passion they had for religion. This change is apparent in the tone of the letters that were exchanged between the two. In letter 2, When Heloise writes to Abelard, she talks about the letter Abelard wrote to his friend. Even from the very first sentence it is obvious that she has real feelings for Abelard when she starts by saying “not long ago, my beloved, by chance someone brought me the letter of consolation you had sent to a friend”. Later in the chapter, she …show more content…

Although, Heloise was intelligent and mature for age, I think it is fair to say that Abelard was much more mature and knew who he was as a philosopher and later, monk. He realized that what they had was lust and that it would not work any longer. If he wanted to continue their life together, he would have made an effort to write in a lighter tone or find her but I think he was done dealing with the situation. It seems generous that he wrote back at all since she did not know where he was and he clearly did not want anything to do with her after the castration. I also believe that Abelard is a very confident man which leads me to thinking that Heloise was a game to him. He wanted to see if he could get his student to admire him so much that it turned into a sexual relationship. He wanted to test himself and see if a young beautiful still wanted him despite the large age gap. The story of Abelard and Heloise is said to be one of the great love stories. This is seen true by some but others will disagree and based on these letters presented to us, it is understandable. This lustful relationship has many problems including the separation of the two, their age difference, and their intense religious fervor. Every clue is clearly in the letters and it is easy to see the tone of each letter slowly getting more and more

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